The Advantages of Collecting Rent Online
Rent is the primary marker landlords use to assess whether they’re running a successful property business. The method used for rent collection can simplify the method of efficiently evaluating the performance of a real estate investment. The most effective way should reduce human error, keep rent information organized, and enable accessibility from anywhere.
Collecting rent online is also a value-added convenience for tenants. Property owners can now make a cashless and paperless transaction with their tenants using payment methods such as:
- Direct bank deposit
- Check
- Rent collection software
- Debit or credit card
- Money transfer apps
Collecting rent online using property management software has become the industry standard for collecting rent from residential and commercial tenants. Today, we’ll look at three of the many advantages that make collecting rent online superior to all other methods.
How to Collect Rent Electronically
The ease of receiving all payments using a paperless system reduces costs that you incur by sending an employee to pick and process checks. There’s also the additional admin’s responsibility to balance the payments for all the residential tenants. Collecting rent online ensures you get an automated update of the payments made and notifies you of pending arrears.
A property management software contains other features to streamline managing rental properties. The software also executes other rent-related tasks such as:
- Schedule rent payments
- Alert tenant on late rent
- Enable security deposit collection
- Automatically updates tenant rent status
The long-term benefits you receive from rent collection and other non-monetary features outweigh the monthly fee you’ll pay for the property management software
Secure Rent Collection
Collecting rent online is secure for you and your commercial tenants because online payments are encrypted to reduce identity theft risk. Paper checks containing the tenant’s bank information can easily get into the wrong hands. If lost, there’s the headache of tracing the cheque and additional costs of late fees for your tenant.
Online payments also prevent landlords from sharing sensitive information with their tenants. For example, making payments via property management software requires you to set up your bank details on your end and then prompt your tenants to make payments without revealing your bank details.
Reliable and Convenient
A landlord with multiple units needs to find ways of simplifying their property-related tasks like rent collection. They should use a method that requires the least effort from them and their commercial tenants. Online rent payment is reliable and convenient because it ensures you get the payments in real-time. It also automatically updates rent payment information from each tenant for accounting purposes.
Collecting rent online via property management software helps you avoid unpleasant confrontations with your tenants. The software automatically sends rent payment reminders, calculates late fees, and sends arrear messages to the tenants, helping landlords avoid potentially unpleasant interactions. The rent payment history is also visible to you and your tenants, which reduces the need for frequent calls or meetings for rent updates and discussions.
How to Collect Rent Online Via a Property Management Software
A property owner has several options to choose from for collecting rent online. The more units they own, the more efficient their rent collection system needs to be. The best option for such property owners is using property management software that personalizes each tenant’s accounts and rent information. Here’s a guide of how you can collect rent using UnitConnect’s property management software:
- Create an account by clicking the sign-up for free button on our website.
- On the dashboard, go to the property management tab and click on the new tenant wizard followed by the go action button.
- Fill in the basic tenant information.
- Click on the subsequent address section. Add the account where your tenant will send their rent payments. Fill in the other fields, save the information and go back to the dashboard.
- To send an invitation to your tenant to access their account, click the admin button on the dashboard, followed by the application manager at the bottom of the page.
- Click on the manage tenant portal menu, enable access and send an invitation message to their email address. Once your tenant opens their email, they’ll be prompted to create a username, and they can access the tenant portal and go directly to make payments.
At UnitConnect, we help you manage your properties more efficiently online and on the go. Visit our page today, and start your 15-day free trial.
